Mike Brooks, Inc in Knoxville IA

I haven't driven for them, but I have spoken to a lot of drivers who have. Based on that, if you can get in with them as a rookie driver, you will be better off than going with any of the big CDL mills. They run up in here in the Twin Cities quite a bit. They seem to keep their equipment up pretty well (Freightliner condos and 53 dry vans, qualcomm). I think they stay pretty much in the midwest and mideast, so you're looking at 400-750 mile runs.

 

Just looked at their website. Only pay they show for drivers has per diem. I'd say no way in hell. Per diem is legal theft, imo.

 

I was with Mike Brooks from July of '99 up until they sold in spring of '08. I really liked it when Mike ran the show. Then he brought in the Taggert brothers to run the company. Steve was a total PITA. Dave was a pretty amiable guy that had to try and clean up the mess his brother caused while there. Steve left for Covenant Transport after a heated event with Mike. They had almost all their eggs in the Ford Automotive basket, and that really hurt them. Finally they had to sell to Translink America(?). Then it really took a dump. A lot of the drivers, like myself, that had quite a few years with them took off for other pastures. I still keep in touch with a number of drivers that are sticking around at Brooks, and I really am not upset that I left. Mike is a great guy, but I think the company is just his name now and he really doesn't make major decisions anymore. I do know that pay, 401K, health plans all changed and got hacked compared to when I worked there. There were always a lot of real good people in dispatch, but even that has changed and a lot of them moved on to other places. I would be cautious about going with them. When they were at their best, they stayed pretty much in the upper Midwest and had everyone home by the weekend, even while getting an average of 140,000 miles a year at .40 a mile. Then pay cuts started and mandatory Per Diem games started. I moved on to another company and got the conditions I had at Brooks when they were a darn good company. I regret leaving Brooks only because of Mike and some of the people, but wasn't going to get screwed by an outside company that had control over them. It worked for me since I lived just up the road from them, and I don't regret having been with Mike. I really enjoyed my time there, especially the early years. But times and things changed. Good luck if you go with them.

 

Besically, per diem works like this. Under normal pay, any driver that is away from home overnight gets to deduct $52 dollars for every day he is gone from his taxes at the end of the year to cover meals and such.

Now trucking companies can also pay you that per diem up front on a per mile basis. Since that income isn't taxable, it lowers your taxable income, but supposedly gives you more money up front. However, most companies keep a portion of that as "processing fees" or whatever they call it. It looks good to some drivers up front because it means if you are careful with your money, you do actually get more per pay day and might be able to make up for not getting a rebate check at the end of the year through sound investments.

But, here's the kicker. There's some benefits that work off of taxable income, IE social security, workers comp, and 401k to name a few (if I remember correctly.) So, now you not only get a little less per mile, and no rebate at the end of the year, but you also get less benefits as well.

There's a post around here somewhere where a poster did a deeper analysis on it, I'll see if I can find it.

 

Raezzor has it right. A little more to gum up the works though.... A lot of companies, when they switch to per diem, cut the total pay a couple of cents and then claim, because of the different tax situation, the driver will take home as much as they did before. Usually doesn't work out quite that way. For instance, if a company is paying $.40 a mile, then switches to per diem, they usually will pay $.30 for the regular pay and $.08 per mile in per diem. So... a two cent cut in rate. Yet, at the same time they get to greatly reduce their required contribution to your social security. Your income looks lower to the SS system and your benefits, if you retire or need them, are reduced. On the surface per diem looks ok, but in actuality, the company is the only one who reaps the rewards. If you have many smaller deductions, by getting per diem, you cannot deduct nearly as much for daily allowance on the road and therefore you may not have enough total deductions, so you might get hit harder by the IRS at tax time. Some do benefit overall from a per diem plan, but only a few at that.

 

Here's the post I was talking about, does a good job explaining about per diem.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...trailer/17485-per-diem-programs-and-info.html